A Targeted Survey for Scrapie in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria

Nwankiti, O. O.; Ikeh, E. I.; Arowolo, O. A.; Nwankiti, A. J.; Odugbo, M. O.; Seuberlich, Torsten (2013). A Targeted Survey for Scrapie in Jos Plateau State, Nigeria. Journal of Veterinary Medicine, 2013, pp. 1-5. Hindawi 10.1155/2013/841978

Preview

Text 841978.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (1MB) | Preview

Scrapie, a disease of sheep and goats with a progressive course and fatal outcome, has not been identified in Nigeria. Anecdotal scrapie reports by livestock workers abound. Livestock diseases like scrapie form huddles in livestock economics of countries. For 8 months we surveyed for scrapie targeting emergency/casualty slaughter sheep and goats in Jos, Nigeria. We clinically examined 510 sheep and 608 goats of local breeds, aged from 12 months to 5 years. In total 31 (5.10%) goats and no sheep were clinically suspicious for scrapie. Caudal brainstem tissues of suspect animals collected postmortem were analyzed for the disease specific form of the prion protein, PrPSc, using Bio-Rad’s TeSeE ELISA rapid test kit. No sample was positive for scrapie. Fluorescent antibody test for rabies and H&E staining on samples were carried out for differential diagnosis. These showed no pathological lesions indicative for neurological disease. While our findings do not exclude the presence of scrapie in Jos, we demonstrate that targeted sampling of small ruminants for neuroinfectious disease is feasible in developing countries, pointing to the possibility of implementing such a monitoring scheme in Nigeria to prevent economic losses in small ruminant livestock as scrapie caveats from endemic countries have shown.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

197 since deposited on 28 Jul 2014
24 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item